Is there any way for me to get the air quality for 2000-2010 or for any other year. I am doing a project on air pollution for beijing and can’t seem to find any data, other than daily ones. The website you directed to is in Mandarin.
Thanks

-Sanmeet

]]>Comment on 2014: first tests of China’s major air quality improvement plans by Benjaminhttp://www.livefrombeijing.com/2014/01/2014-first-tests-of-chinas-major-air-quality-improvement-plans/comment-page-1/#comment-233374
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:43:45 +0000http://www.livefrombeijing.com/?p=1297#comment-233374Hi, this is a very interesting blog! I hope you don’t mind if I abuse this comment function to ask you whether you know of a site which displays historical air quality information for Beijing. There must be something out there, but I can’t seem to find it on Google (tried only English so far). I’m simply trying to look up how a certain date looked like air-quality-wise in recent years. Average air quality in the course of a year would also be of interest. I realize I could probably pull this data from the Ministry’s database, but I’m certain that someone has already done that and I don’t want to do the same work twice.

Thanks very much in advance

]]>Comment on unique pinyin combinations by Kenhttp://www.livefrombeijing.com/2009/01/unique-pinyin-combinations/comment-page-1/#comment-230109
Sat, 28 Dec 2013 16:16:07 +0000http://www.livefrombeijing.com/2009/01/unique-pinyin-combinations/#comment-230109Great post. I have lived and studied in China and would consider myself fluent in the language but I never knew the stuff here. I attended a wedding of a cousin who married a Chinese girl, and her surname was Weng. Since I had never seen that pinyin combination before I thought I’d look it up and here I am. And yes the name was 翁.
]]>Comment on how many pinyin combinations are there? by Why Chinese is Easy to Learn | Parents of African American Students Studying Chinesehttp://www.livefrombeijing.com/2009/01/how-many-pinyin-combinations-are-there/comment-page-1/#comment-197434
Tue, 24 Sep 2013 06:16:32 +0000http://www.livefrombeijing.com/2009/01/how-many-pinyin-combinations-are-there/#comment-197434[…] 3. It doesn’t have that many combinations of sounds. livefrombeijing.com […]
]]>Comment on beijing’s comprehensive new motor vehicle emission control plans by Robhttp://www.livefrombeijing.com/2013/09/beijings-comprehensive-new-motor-vehicle-emission-control-plans/comment-page-1/#comment-194307
Fri, 13 Sep 2013 08:20:21 +0000http://www.livefrombeijing.com/?p=1247#comment-194307Vance — awesome write up. I very selfishly wanted to highlight point 34 on reforming the freight structure for energy saving and emission reduction. 50,000 “Green trucks” in Beijing by 2015, and 200 NEV trucks by 2017, with a reduction from freight vehicle pollution of 15%.

It’s going to be interesting to see how “Green trucks” are going to be defined in Beijing, if it will merely mean achieving the emission standards that have been set in other parts of this plan, or if it will mean something more aggressive. I personally hope it will be more aggressive, with a focus also on drop and hook fleets and better information platforms for intra- and inter-regional freight movement. Guess we’ll have to wait and see, eh?

]]>Comment on how many pinyin combinations are there? by 15 Reasons Why Learning Chinese Is Easier Than English | Ten Thousand Miles from Homehttp://www.livefrombeijing.com/2009/01/how-many-pinyin-combinations-are-there/comment-page-1/#comment-194207
Fri, 13 Sep 2013 00:28:18 +0000http://www.livefrombeijing.com/2009/01/how-many-pinyin-combinations-are-there/#comment-194207[…] doesn’t have that many combinations of sounds. livefrombeijing.com […]
]]>Comment on beijing’s comprehensive new motor vehicle emission control plans by Vancehttp://www.livefrombeijing.com/2013/09/beijings-comprehensive-new-motor-vehicle-emission-control-plans/comment-page-1/#comment-192926
Mon, 09 Sep 2013 16:35:15 +0000http://www.livefrombeijing.com/?p=1247#comment-192926ML_NewYork:

Good question. Glad to know there are some ORVR fans out there.

It wouldn’t really make sense to have an ORVR standard only for Beijing. Best case would be a national standard. I think Beijing’s ORVR claim here is probably designed to be a signal to the national government.

There has been a big debate at the national level over the last few years about whether to implement an ORVR standard. Interestingly, Beijing has previously not supported a national ORVR standard, because they spent so much money on Stage II retrofits and were worried about ORVR/Stage II incompatibility issues.

My hope is that with this announcement, Beijing is extending an olive branch to say they now understand that a) Stage II/ORVR incomptability issue can be overcome, and b) ORVR is a better long-term VOC control solution for China, so they would not oppose national-level efforts further.

A question: How do you see something like the ORVR standard (in clause 26) working for Beijing? Is it conceivable that automakers would design and sell ORVR-ready vehicles just for Beijing, while the vehicles they sell in the rest of China continue to be ORVR-less?

Or do you think this indicates the technology going live nation-wide at some point in the next few years?

]]>Comment on beijing’s comprehensive new motor vehicle emission control plans by Wesley Andrewshttp://www.livefrombeijing.com/2013/09/beijings-comprehensive-new-motor-vehicle-emission-control-plans/comment-page-1/#comment-191708
Fri, 06 Sep 2013 15:20:25 +0000http://www.livefrombeijing.com/?p=1247#comment-191708G’Day! Livefrombeijing,
Along the same lines,, Over the past two decades or so, Beijing has seen comprehensive, multi-stage upgrades in its mass transit & metro systems, train stations, airport, and streets. It has also been the recipient of an unparalleled series of new constructions such as the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the National Stadium and other buildings on the Olympic Green, the buildings at Wangfujing, the Central Business District, the Central Financial District, as well as a seemingly countless number of hotels, shopping complexes, and residential plazas. Who are the major financiers of Beijing’s giant leap into the 21st century? Are they mostly private concerns, and of which nationalities? Or are the upgrades largely subsidized by the Chinese government, fed by its surplus, ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics? What percentages of money flowing into Beijing’s construction are private domestic money, private overseas money, and governmental? Who retains ownership of these buildings?
Cheers
]]>Comment on proof of linear extrapolation of embassy pm2.5-aqi relationship above 500 by Vancehttp://www.livefrombeijing.com/2013/01/proof-of-linear-extrapolation-of-embassy-pm2-5-aqi-relationship-above-500/comment-page-1/#comment-153581
Wed, 08 May 2013 15:33:58 +0000http://www.livefrombeijing.com/?p=1153#comment-153581FK:

Thanks. I linked to the Dec 2012 revision in my previous post. This post here is showing the relationship >500, which is not defined in the EPA’s regulatory documents. I assumed it would be linear, and these data here prove it.